The Day of Pentecost
May 27, 2007

When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4)

…he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. (John 20:22)

As Christians we profess to believe many things that defy logic—virgin birth, resurrection from the dead, the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist—but for me the hardest to articulate, to adequately explain is the notion of a triune God. To claim that we believe in ONE God while praying in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and relating to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit—well, it boggles the mind and defies rational explanation. And frankly, I’m glad that NEXT Sunday is Trinity Sunday so that Steve can tackle that conundrum. I only bring it up today because our gospel today—indeed the whole day of Pentecost—revolves around one part, one person to use the technical term—of that triune God, the Holy Spirit.

The Feast of Pentecost, which we celebrate today, commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit into the lives of Jesus’ disciples. We actually have two accounts of how this happened—our first reading from Acts tells the Lucan and probably better known version of the story, while the gospel reading from John tells another. Although the two versions vary in the details—one is right after the resurrection, the other is 50 days later, in one Jesus is present, in the other he isn’t—the main point of the story is the same: while the disciples are gathered together they receive an in-pouring of the Holy Spirit which empowers them to go out into the world and carry out the ministry given to them by Jesus, empowers them to become the church.

It must have been a wondrous event, this coming of the Holy Spirit, fulfilling a promise made by Jesus to be with his followers until the end of the age. Imagine what it must have been like for those disciples—whether it was weeks since the crucifixion and resurrection or only a couple of days it must have been an uncertain time, a fearful time, a time of full of the anxiety of wondering, “what has happened?” and “what is next?” And then they are filled with the power of the Spirit, a spirit who could at once be a comfort and a source of strength.

Jesus had promised the disciples that he would be with them always. He promised to send an Advocate, a Comforter, a helper, but did the disciples have any idea what that meant? Were they surprised that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to them to fulfill that promise?

Of course as religious Jews steeped in Torah, the notion of the Holy Spirit would not have been new to them. The presence of the Holy Spirit is implied in scripture from the very beginning of creation, where in the first chapter of Genesis, the breath (ruach in Hebrew and pneuma in Greek, words that additionally connote both wind and spirit) of God moves over the formless void. It is the Holy Spirit that empowers the leaders of Israel – Moses, David, Solomon and the Holy Spirit that fuels the words of the prophets – Amos, Micah, Jeremiah, Isaiah – giving them a wisdom and authority far greater than their own. It is the Holy Spirit that the psalmist implores God not to take away. The Holy Spirit was closely identified with the spirit of God, with creation, with guidance and wisdom.

So when Jesus sends the Holy Spirit as the comforter, as the sign that he will be with them always, perhaps that was his way of reinforcing the notion that he was in fact co-equal, one with the Father. Perhaps this was Jesus’ way of laying the groundwork for the doctrine of the Trinity, establishing a connection between his presence and the presence of the spirit in the lives of the disciples.

Whatever the disciples expected, though, and however they understood Jesus’ choice, the sending of the Holy Spirit was transformative for them. Here was a band of confused, scared disciples—disciples of a leader who had gone to an ignominious death and then been resurrected from the grave—who were given the task of spreading the message of that leader. It was the power of the Holy Spirit that galvanized them to do so. It was the power of the Holy Spirit that provided them the wisdom, the perseverance, the gifts that they needed to take Christ’s message out into the world, to become the church.

Two thousand years later we are both the beneficiaries of and heirs to that empowerment the disciples received from and through the Holy Spirit. We are here today because the followers of Jesus, strengthened and fortified by the Holy Spirit went forth and made disciples of all the nations—not perfectly, not without strife and discord and mistakes and wrong-headedness, but persistently and persuasively nonetheless.

And we are heirs both to the task that was left to the disciples by Jesus and to the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. We may not experience the rushing winds and tongues of fire of Pentecost, but we are marked as Christ’s own forever by the power of the Holy Spirit at our baptism. Do we allow ourselves to live into that power? Are we transformed as by the Holy Spirit as the disciples were? Do we take seriously those promises made at our baptism not only to believe but also to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ? When we are sent forth after the Eucharist to love and serve the Lord, do we?

In just a moment we will stand and renew our baptismal covenant as part of our celebration of Pentecost. As we do so, I invite you to open your hearts yet again to the power of the Holy Spirit, to be willing to be transformed as the disciples were, and to leave here today ready to live out the promises you’ve reaffirmed. What better way to celebrate Pentecost than to receive again the Holy Spirit as the disciples did.

AMEN